The Bermuda Triangle– the Mystery of the Deserted Lighthouse

To my knowledge there has only been one instance before this when all the lighthouse keepers have vanished from their post and island, leaving behind them the mystery of a deserted lighthouse. This was the famous disappearance off Scotland of the three lighthouse keepers at Eilean Mor in the Flannan Islands. There was evidence there, though, that the three lighthouse keepers had put on their oilskins and ventured out into a storm. To do what on the lonely island, we do not know. But in December 1900 when the relief boat came, they found a mystery but they found clues to suggest the men were all outside in a storm. The seas of the Flannan Islands in the Outer Hebrides are wild seas at the best of time. During a storm, the sea is a giant monster and each wave a potential tentacle that could lash onto the land and drag off a man to the deep.

The Grand Bahama Banks, August 1969, are a little bit different. Ivan Majors and B. Mollings, the lighthouse keepers on Great Isaac’s Rock, an island north of Bimini had shallow seas around them. They had tropical weather, and they had radio. Yet to this day their joint disappearances remain mysterious. When relief came to the little spit of an island, the lighthouse was abandoned.

Great Isaac’s Rock is the little dash of land at the top of the picture.

There is much speculation but no concrete answer. To my knowledge there really isn’t much information in place to backwork what the two keepers had been doing that day. There isn’t much to say what they took either, if anything. All we know is that the lighthouse was abandoned and no trace of the two was ever found again.

One theory was that some drug transaction went down or it was an intentional disappearance. Theory comes easy, however, but without much information behind it theory doesn’t really take form. This may be one reason why this unusual disappearance is not more often discussed. By contrast, the deserted lighthouse of Eilean Mor is a staple in the annals of the mysteries of the sea.

Forlorn and abandoned to this day– this photo by a visitor in 2003.

Very few, unfortunately, know of the Mystery of Great Isaac’s Rock, as it is known. Because it occurred in the Bermuda Triangle, it has inspired fantastic theories. Alien abduction is one of the more popular. In a technical sense they didn’t disappear at sea. Electronic Fog could not have seized them. Nor time warps or ancient space warping rays from ancient and submerged Atlantis. This only seems to leave “aliens.”

It has even been said that a local well known diver, Bruce Mournier, saw two underwater UFOs in the vicinity heading out to sea. This is proffered in order to corroborate the idea of alien abduction. In actuality Mournier was recorded while recounting his experience and, though it is an odd sighting, it doesn’t really jive with anything to do with the lighthouse keepers on Great Isaac’s Rock. He specifically said:

“There’s two underwater UFOS or two things you never seen before. They’ve been buzzing alongside the boat and now they’re off the front kinda heading from south to north. So I looked out. I seen these two things. I guess they’re about 60 feet apart. They’re buzzing along in formation. They’re egg shape, they’re round, more or less egg shape/ round; I guess bout 40 or 50 feet in diameter, and the same distance long, a little bit to the egg shape side. And I follow them [visually] for about, oh, I don’t know how long. I just watched and tried to figure out what it was. I couldn’t believe my eyes. They looked like they were really moving out faster the further they got away. It looked like they were about 40 feet underwater— maybe 20 feet, 40 feet. It’s out in the crystal clear Gulf Steam. They kept on going off. As they faded away, I don’t know if they faded off in the distance or whether they made a dive down or what but they were gone.”

A strange encounter in the Triangle. Others have reported such phenomena as USOs. But neither Bruce nor any contemporary linked them to the missing lighthouse keepers.

The Bermuda Triangle and its theories, though tantalizing, blinds us to the mystery. Great Isaac’s Rock was truly found deserted on August 4, 1969. The two lighthouse keepers have never been found again, and there is too little information out there to put back a detailed recreation of what must have happened. We need clues. We need many more clues.

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Since 1990 Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.